← Stay Paid Podcast
Stay Paid Podcast
A Roundtable with Insurance-Industry Leaders on Productivity and Wealth
00:53:15
Join us for a power-packed conversation with some of the insurance industry’s top leaders: Alex Branning, founder of Agent CRM; Nick Bravo, CEO of Level Up Marketing; and Nate Auffort, an agency owner and founder of SWAT Training (Strategic Wealth...
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Stay Paid podcast where we help agents and entrepreneurs master the latest business trends to unlock growth and create a life of freedom. Brought to you by Reminder Media. Welcome to another episode of Stay Paid. I am your host, Luke Acree. And you've already noticed that we don't have the best intro in the biz because Josh, my great co host, is out of town right now. But don't worry, I have three superstar business owners that we're going to be interviewing today. You're going to get some rapid fire advice. You're going to hear some great stuff. Stay Paid, it's a sales and marketing podcast all about helping you live a life of freedom tomorrow. But only if you take action today. So here's who I have on the show today and we're going to dive right into it. I have Alex Branning. He is the founder of Agent CRM, the best CRM for insurance agents in the business.
- [00:47]
B
Thank you, sir.
- [00:47]
A
Yes, welcome to the show. We have Nick Bravo. He is the owner of Level Up Marketing where they specialize in consulting, pay per click strategies, marketing strategies to help you maximize your business and online presence. And we have Nate Offert, a partner with Symmetry Financial, an accomplished insurance agency owner and a visionary behind the SWAT conference. So if you're in insurance and haven't been to swat, check that out. I'll have you plug the website later because we're going to be at swat. But welcome to the show, gentlemen.
- [01:15]
B
Thank you for having us, man.
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A
Okay, I'm going to need a little bit more excitement than that. Thank you.
- [01:19]
B
There you go.
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A
Okay, so I invited all these guys into town for the Eagles cowboys game. The cowboys got dominated. So sorry for all the cowboys fans out there, but I'm not sorry because I hate cowboys can't fandom. So Eagles dominated.
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C
What was the score, like 41 7.
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A
Yeah, 41 7. It was. It was nuts. So Nick, sorry about that for the.
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C
Fly eagles fly thing, but we can say that.
- [01:38]
A
Yeah, we'll say that. We don't want to hear Nate sing that song. I heard it sung way too many times last night. I want to dive in. I want to open up with rapid fire questions. So these guys are all very successful business owners, entrepreneurs. They've been through the rodeo, like all of you are going through the rodeo and have a ton of wisdom to share. So I want to get to it, but I want to start off with some simple rapid fire questions. Get you guys thought. Start with you, Alex. What is the best book you've read recently?
- [02:03]
B
I would say the who, not the how.
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A
The who, not the how. Okay. What about you, Nick?
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D
Extreme ownership with Jocko Willink.
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A
Yeah, love Jocko. He spoke to our company during the pandemic.
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D
You went up.
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A
You went up a little. He was, he was the, the advice that really stuck out. He looked at the sales team and he says, sales team. You know, some days you're going to feel great. You're going to come in, you're going to want to make a lot of money, you're going to want to make the calls, you're going to want to talk to these people, you're going to want to help them. He said, good, get on the phone, make your calls. Some days you're going to come in, you're going to hate it. You're not going to want to talk to a single person. You hate this job. You want to quit. Good, get on the phone, make the calls. Anyways. He goes, the difference between winners and losers is the discipline. Your emotions can be going up and down, but your discipline is consistent. He goes, that's the difference. And, oh, that stuck with me. I mean, stuck with me for years and years. I was like, yeah, that's what it is. That the people can control their emotions that take extreme ownership. Don't let outside things affect them. Those are the people who win. What about you, man?
- [02:57]
C
I love what you said that because I remember my mentor said the key to success is going on. He's like, you know, what's the magic word? I'm just thinking, you know, when growing up, like, please. I said, no attitude. He said, can you keep it consistent attitude even when, when you're failing? So I, I think you grow rich, man. I just think you read it again over, over Mexico.
- [03:15]
A
You could study that book.
- [03:16]
C
I, I do study it. I read. It's like a bible to the business. You have what, 20 year study of all the wealth, people that walk to planet earth and they don't have it in our schools and they wrote a book about it and, and most people I talk to. Ever read thing go rich? No. You know, so I mean, that it should.
- [03:30]
A
It is the bible of business books. Like, I mean, it is one of the greatest books. All right, next rapid fire question. We want to go back to the tech guy. One app, you can't live without strides.
- [03:38]
B
It's my to do list app. It keeps me going and it gives me things that I have to do outside of business. Like I take vitamins every day. Strides, stride. So Cody Askins actually showed it to me and I've been using it ever since.
- [03:50]
A
Nice. All right, so then. Strides, strides. I'm gonna have to check that out. Nick. Biggest business pet peeve. What's your biggest pet peeve in business?
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D
People thinking they're worth more than the market's willing to pay them simply because they value themselves, but they don't know how to market.
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A
This is a huge problem. I don't know if you guys find this in the businesses that you're in, especially from the Gen Z, and I would say even I'm a millennial generation, even millennials. It's that I think the social media that's come onto the scene has shown you what everybody else lives like. You feel entitled to live that way, and I want you to live that way. But there is a value exchange in the market that you're not going to be paid 100k a year if you cannot produce 600k a year. I mean, if you can't produce a certain level of revenue, there's no value to actually give you. And people just miss that. So I, I agree with that. All right, Nate, what? Favorite productivity hack to make you more productive.
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C
Favorite productivity hack. There's so many. I'm trying to think my favorite. I'm trying microphone here at. I would say the. You gotta. There's a couple things that go along with this, but you got, you got to be able to. If you don't have it scheduled in your day, it's not going to get done. Especially working from home, all this, like all our guys are remote and everything else. And for you to wake up in the morning and, you know, I don't touch my phone for 30 minutes. I don't look at my email. I, you know, I think it was in my. Let said you want to own the day. So that first time I wake up in the morning, it's 30 minutes, you know, right when you wake up. Best time to program your subconscious mind. It's like I'm putting that. I'm downloading things into my brain, into my computer, into my hard drive, overriding all the negative. Bad program I have. You know, it's unfortunate, you know, we don't have it. You hit a delete button on a computer. We all know it doesn't. There's not like a little. Little trash can out the back where all the stuff falls out. It's still in there. Get to the right guy, guess what? They're gonna find it. You know, they have find every keystroke, everything it's ever been on your computer, on your phone. I Tell my son.
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A
Don't tell me that. Yeah, yeah.
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C
So you can never get rid of it. So you gotta, you gotta override it. Right? So it's like, I think so many people miss that because they sleep with their phone when they go to bed. Like my, my son, I love, he turned 18 years old. I'm here on the trip. Thank you so much. He was, he was, man, he was so excited. He was so excited to be there at the game. And it's like he knows when he goes to bed, his phone goes on the kitchen counter and he goes up to his room and he doesn't touch it until, you know, 30 minutes.
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A
That is impressive, man, for an 18 year old.
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C
If you ever look at him. Yeah, man, we hung out, we hung out with a lot of kids his age and it's non.
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A
Dude, I'm not that disciplined. I'm embarrassed by like. Yeah, I'm on my phone all the time.
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C
Well, you know, what is it? Usually you start checking your emails. Oh, man, you got this, you got that, you got this. You just lost your day. Now, now, now the day owns you. So I'm really, really big in owning your day and scheduling everything into your day. Right. Whether it be workout, family time, religious time, whatever it is that you're going to do. They always say, what White calendars, the devil's workshop, basically. And especially if you're working from home, if you don't schedule it in. I wasn't really good at that. I was never a big scheduler. Right. So, so owning today when I wake up and doing my meditation and my personal growth and, and visualizing and what my day is going to look like, my month, the year, and going through my goals and reading my goal cards. I make it religious practice every single day. When I wake up in the morning before I go to bed. That's would be my eternal hack, you know, into programming your body.
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A
Dude, that's so good. Yeah, I think there is. You just triggered for me that what happens to people is they go through this process of they don't schedule, so they're ineffective. So then they get mentorship and they realize, okay, I gotta sketch my day. So then they put things on their calendar, but they don't honor them. Yeah.
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D
So they're, they're fake lying to themselves. Yeah.
- [07:14]
A
So then they're lying to themselves and then it almost gets worse. For people at least. This is the progression I've been on. It's, it's now a secret because you have shown to the world that you're Productive, but you internally know you're not. And things that are in secret have power over you. Like, the best thing you can do is actually reveal to people your failures and how bad you are, because now you have power over the failure and power over, you know, whatever's happening versus when you keep it in secret, it has power over you. And that's the hardest thing, because it's counterintuitive, because you don't want to reveal your weakness to people. You don't want to reveal that. Hey, I told on my calendar, it said I would dial for two hours, but I really only dialed for an hour because I got on TikTok. And it's like, you don't want to reveal that, but if you don't reveal it, it now has power over you. And now you're faking to the world that you are productive and you're not really productive, but your results will ultimately get to you.
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C
That's the worst death, right? To yourself. That's the worst death.
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A
It is, man. It's like almost like the journey of life is. And you see this in people who, as they get older, older people don't care what people think nearly as much as younger people, right? They just get to a point like, this is why the old people say whatever they want.
- [08:20]
C
So what happens when I get old?
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A
I'm scared of Nate getting old, man.
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C
I'm turning 50 in March, and I always say what I wanted for the.
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A
Last 20, but it's because, you know, you're just willing to be more truthful because you realize it doesn't matter. It's like, what if I keep it secret? Actually, that hurts more. All right, here's next question. We'll go to Nick, but I want everybody to answer this. Who has been your biggest mentor or inspiration and why?
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D
Biggest mentor.
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A
Or inspiration and why?
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D
Joe Rogan.
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A
Joe Rogan.
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C
Wow.
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A
I was not expecting that. Why do you say that?
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D
I watched Joe Rogan do something that people said couldn't be done. He not only did podcasting, he was a UFC host, he was a TV show host, and he's a comedian. I have a plethora of gifts and people could tell me, hey, you can't, I don't know, do motivational hip hop and write for commercials while also be a CEO of a company while also do X, Y and Z. But one of the things I saw with Joe Rogan is everything fed what he's doing. He does things he's passionate about, and they feed each other. And so what made his podcast so Powerful in the beginning is he was bringing on a bunch of UFC gifts, guests. That's because of his. His hosting role in ufc.
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A
Yep.
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D
He got his comedy special because he got so big on podcasting and that stuff. He learned how to, you know, be comfortable with people, and he got his opportunity to be on tv. TV show host. The Fear Factor. So he became this brand. And so for me, my mentality is to use all of my gifts as best as possible. Not to be distracted, but to use them in tandem so they build other opportunities. And for a long time, everybody said, you got to just do one thing. Now, I agree with you guys as far as, like, in my company, focusing on a certain client base, but as far as the skill sets, I was like, this guy does multiple things really, really well, and they all feed each other, and he's passionate about them.
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A
Yep.
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D
Right.
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A
And even when he was told no, you're saying that he basically kept going.
- [10:11]
D
Yeah, I mean, that was the. I mean, every buddy usually says, you know, you're not. You can't do those four things like most people. I mean, we're used to it now because he does it. But prior to Joe Rogan, I don't know anybody who had a successful podcast at 200 million got it bought out, but paid by Spotify while gets to go to UFC vets whenever he wants. He only goes to the ones he picks.
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B
What's.
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D
When he wants to. Dana. Dana keeps him free on that Dana White. And then he also gets to do his comedy special, which he wants because he's. He does this podcast because he naturally likes people and he brings friends on and communicates with them, and he's a.
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A
Student of it, like you said. Like, the thing about Joe Rogan, because I've listened to him a lot too, is he is a student of the art. So he talks about comedy and what makes a great, you know, comedian, and he studies how to actually do it. And the same with his podcasting. You think it's something he just naturally does?
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C
It's not.
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A
He's gifted towards it. He did thousands of students. Exactly.
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D
And he started as a comedian at 18, but he also was doing martial arts. And so all of his passions came into play, and he's using them at the maximum point. That's my vision, because.
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A
What about you, Alex? Like, who do you look up to? Who's your greatest mentor, inspiration, and why?
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B
Yeah, well, Mark over at Salesforce, he's definitely someone who I consider an inspiration. Incredible software developer, software mind, visionary. As far as my mentor, I Have a lot of people in different areas of our life. You know, we talked a little bit on Mindset Monday about having people in different areas. So as far as my biggest mentor, I would say in business, I have a circle of advisors that really speak into me, and so I really rely on them to kind of see the market from their point of view and speak to me about what I'm doing, right or wrong.
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A
Love it.
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C
Yeah. I mean, to your point, whoever. Whoever is. And I talk about this on money, Mindset is find someone who has what you want, do what they do, you'll get what they got. So whoever's in the spot where I want to be at, they're in that mentor in that moment in my life. And so I've had, you know, hundreds if not thousands of mentors. It doesn't have someone that you can reach out and touch. It can be reading a book, me listening to the podcast. It can be.
- [12:15]
A
Do you think you have to be intentional about seeing them as a mentor?
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C
Oh, 100%.
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A
So you actually apply what they're saying? Because I think, you know, for people listening to this, I think to myself.
- [12:26]
C
Right, Oh, I like this, but I don't like that. Well, too bad. Yeah, I would do it different, get the result. Like, I met my. My mentor, my first mentor, which I always talk about, who changed my life. Right. Making a million dollars a week. I heard so many people walk up and like, well, you. Back then, he was pretty crass. He was very direct. He wasn't afraid to challenge you, hurt your feelings. Choice words to some people. And I would hear people go like, oh, you're just so amazing. You're someone. If you just change this. Or, I love what you do, but I do it differently. And it's like, if you do it differently, you're not gonna get the same results. It's like, I don't understand that mindset. Oh. And people come to me and say the same stuff. It's like, okay, great, then go do what it is that you want to do, but don't seek out a mentor. And pick and choose. And I hate what I said. Pick and choose what you think they're.
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B
Yeah.
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C
I'm not talking about their personal life or how they are with their children. I didn't hire my mentor to be my therapist and hire him to be my. My marriage counselor. I didn't hire to be my pastor, But I looked at, okay, what do I want to accomplish in terms of building teams and successful and teach people how to do sales and overcoming objections. And I literally studied it day in, day out. Study in it, the tonality, the pace. Someone came to one of my events, and it was funny. We had. We had a chance to do a mastermind here, and we actually reconnect. We did a Mastermind for about 25 people. It was awesome. It was done. So when he was like, oh, my God, he talks just like you. I talk like him, right? I've studied him so much and listened to so much and. And you. You have to recognize, number one, their mentor. You have to take. I always say, learn to bake the cupcake before trying to figure out what type of icing you want to add onto it. When I got in the insurance industry, I had 20 years of sales experience, right? And I listened to the. I said, who's your top guy or gal? Right? Who's your top. I didn't go in there and go, what's your average guy make? What's your average agent make? I don't know. I don't want to be average. Why would I ask that question if I'm failing out of biology class, right? And I need a. A to pass or I have to repeat my senior year and I walk in and there's no one in the room and the teacher's not there, I'm going to start seeking out the kids. I'm not going to look for the guy who got a. You know, who here got C's and D's. Can I sit by you? No, I'm finding the guy that makes.
- [14:24]
A
Sense for that I'm going find by.
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C
Oh, I know. I have all the hacks. I'm finding the valedictorian of biology. You got positioning, my guess.
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A
Sit up front.
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C
No, I'm pushing my desk right there to build a copy from it. So it's like you got to recognize, right? You got to recognize who do you. To be able to copy from? No, learn.
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A
Learn. You should have said learn.
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C
Not.
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A
Not copy.
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C
No, because there's no. I'm glad you said that. Everyone thinks you want to learn from the mentor. No, you need to watch and copy and duplicate them before you learn.
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A
I meant in school.
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C
But yes, it's the same analogy, right? So, like, when I got my sales script, I who's your top people? I got who. What's your sales script? Let me listen.
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A
So good. This is such a good.
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C
And I memorized it over and over and over and over and over. And I didn't worry about even the stuff I could have brought in a lot of my things that I did Communication. Yeah, but I didn't change the script. I didn't go well. I like how he says that it wasn't until I was doing as well as the top people and then out producing them that I ever think about, well, maybe I could add this in there. Let me try this. Because now I had a beta. No. Everyone tries to all this stuff. It's so funny. And we'll probably get into this, but it's like, you know, it's not. It's not me. It's the leads, it's the company, it's the complaint. So no one ever takes, and they don't stay true enough to go, okay, great. If there's people winning in what I'm doing, there's an opportunity for me to win if I just do what they do, period. It may not be the best hamburger, but guess what? They sell billions.
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A
Yes.
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B
Yeah.
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C
We can all go in our backyard and make a better hamburger. McDonald's can never do it, but guess what? They sell billions. Why? Because you can hire a high school kid to put the same crappy three little pickles on the same crappy bun that tastes like it's been aged in water for eight days or whatever else, and the things look like onions.
- [15:57]
A
I like McDonald's.
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C
Oh, my God, it's horrible. They're known for what? Listen. What they. What are they known for?
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A
Big Mac fries.
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C
They're French fries. Anyway, I don't know.
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A
Cancer?
- [16:06]
C
Yeah.
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A
Yeah, that's what it is.
- [16:07]
C
So I know. Yeah. So, yes, it's important to recognize their mentor. And then. And then you gotta copy them exactly what they do before you worry about what seasoning you want to put on your steak.
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A
Man. Everybody should just rewind. Yeah, I was gonna say five minutes.
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B
I was like, can we stop the podcast now and start a new one? Because I feel like that's the podcast.
- [16:24]
A
Like, that is absolute gold that we had Kevin Harrington on the show, who was one of the Shark Tank people.
- [16:30]
C
No, no, no, no. He was the original, original shark, but.
- [16:34]
A
He wrote a book about being a good minty in essence. And so, like, the problem with mentorship is you're not a good mentee. Is usually what happens is the mentee does not listen, does not copy and paste. And so that is just such golden wisdom. All right, I want to get Dive a little bit into our expertise in business, because each of you are doing.
- [16:54]
C
Oh, I can leave here then, right?
- [16:55]
A
Yeah. So I want to go to you, Alex, on, you know, because you've created the best CRM in the insurance Space. You have so many thousands of agents using it. You know, how has the role of a CRM evolved in today's sales landscape? And then what features do you think agents overlook in a CRM that they should be.
- [17:15]
C
Allegedly, you said the best one in the industry.
- [17:17]
A
Yeah, yeah, allegedly, I said allegedly. I said it is the best agent CRM. Check it out. No affiliate sponsorship here, but I do love them.
- [17:24]
C
So, hey, that was actually a plug for you because now people are actually subconsciously going, well, is it the best? Well, how you know if it's the best, you gotta try it. Yeah.
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B
Hey, thank you, Nate.
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A
Hey.
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C
That's why I always say, hey, I'm open to anything. Just I'll try it and I'll let you know. Does it work for me? And it may not be for everybody.
- [17:38]
A
Yeah, that's a great way to look at it.
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C
I was actually doing something good for you.
- [17:41]
B
Thank you, Nate. Appreciate it, man. Yeah.
- [17:43]
C
Well, what's my affiliate link? So if you go to Nate offer this podcast is getting stay paid or something, right? I want to get stay paid.
- [17:53]
A
So we got to get to the actual question here. I mean, it's a good time, but yeah, what do you think?
- [17:58]
B
So a CRM, really, prior to the year 2020 in the insurance space, was really looked at as a data organization tool. A great CRM now is something that helps you maximize the value of each lead. Not only getting your leads to schedule appointments, but also getting them to come back and buy other products from you and then also set up referrals. 89% of people that buy from their insurance agent would happily refer somebody to that insurance agent. But only 11% of salespeople ask for referrals because they just don't get in the habit of it. It's not a part of their day to day. So a CRM needs to come in and actually do that work for them. Right. And a good CRM is also going to help you with client retention by doing things like reminding you of the benefits of what you just purchased, help you get set up with what you just got, and then remind you when the renewal's coming so that you set up a phone call with the person specifically for PNC and life things that require renewal.
- [18:53]
A
I gotta ask you this kind of selfishly because AI is all the rage, right? Do you feel that? And are you seeing this with agent CRM? You guys are going to be implementing AI that basically makes the calls, response to the text, does the emails. Is that what you're seeing right now in the future?
- [19:07]
C
Yeah.
- [19:07]
B
We were one of the first to come out with AI inside of our CRM. We called it Schedule Bot. That was about two and a half years ago. And that was basically, as the name says, it was all about just scheduling appointments. People were like, oh my God, this is amazing. Some agents were freaking out and going, AI is going to replace agents. And I said, no. Agents that use AI will replace the agents that don't. Right. And so AI is going to continue to help the top producers become even more productive. And the ones that are still too lazy to pick up the phone are going to still be too lazy to pick up the phone. I will not replace the hard work.
- [19:43]
A
Jeff Bezos sees AI kind of like electricity.
- [19:45]
D
Yeah.
- [19:46]
A
Is how he's been talking about it. Essentially, where electricity is in everything. Everything uses it. Essentially, it powers everything. AI is going to be that. It's going to be. It powers everything, it's in everything. So you have to adapt to it and use it. But again, there's going to be certain variations where, you know, some systems will. It will totally replace the task, others it won't. Yeah, okay.
- [20:06]
B
It is nitrous oxide. It is not the engine. It will help you go faster. It will not replace you.
- [20:11]
C
Okay.
- [20:11]
A
Love it. All right, let's go to you, Nick, because you're doing level up marketing, you're having success with pay per click. I see, you know, pay per click as a great option that is untapped. We have a lot of real estate agents that listen, a lot of insurance agents that listen to pay per click. So I want to just ask you, in the world of like PPC and digital marketing, what's a common business mistake that you see people make when they try to get into Google advertising? Pay per click.
- [20:39]
D
That our audience, I think people, people make the comparison that's probably similar to Facebook. And Facebook is more friendly for the common user. There's a lot of business owners that can figure out Facebook. It's not easy. I've seen Alex do Facebook and it requires a level of intentionality and you have to have a brain for it. But it's still more user friendly. People try to transition over to Google Ads to diversify the marketing or shift their marketing because I feel like it's going to be a better spot. They usually start with outsourcing. Some guy in India doesn't work. Then they try to do it themselves on smart mode. So Google would have you believe that smart mode makes you smart, but it actually is dumb mode because what happens is Google is using AI this is I am a believer in AI, but AI isn't completely sophisticated in every area. So they, they just automate it. Use AI and AI blows the budget. And so Google is one of those things that I would say if you're going to get into it and I understand I have an agency, but there's.
- [21:33]
C
A lot out there.
- [21:34]
D
Get a specialist to manage it and actually get to your KPIs like what you need because the AI isn't where it's. It's supposed to be. So if you go into this I can just put it on smart mode. You're going to blow your budget, you're going to waste your money. And then people say it doesn't work. Google Ads works because think about Google. Everybody searches on Google for something. One of the things that is a differentiator between Google and Facebook. Facebook is great. You guys do Facebook. It's interruption media. People are scrolling and then they hear about your services. What makes Google so effective is that people are actively searching for that service in that moment. They're searching for it. They're not being interrupt. And so you're seeing it even with your campaigns that we're running that we're still in infancy stage. The conversion ratio is higher than Facebook right now. And the reason is, is simply because someone on Facebook might be interested in your services at some point or you.
- [22:22]
A
Might check to give you some numbers on that. We are converting pay per click. That's coming from you at like 40.
- [22:29]
D
Yeah, that was. And it's. We're still in infancy stage, which is.
- [22:31]
A
I mean, I don't know what Facebook is that Facebook is like around 15.
- [22:35]
D
Yeah. So.
- [22:35]
A
So it's a lot better because it's intent versus interrupt.
- [22:38]
D
Yes.
- [22:39]
A
And we. This is how people work.
- [22:41]
C
Right.
- [22:41]
A
I'm the same naive, you know, entrepreneur. I get business owners, everybody. So we hire you right, to do it. We make you do smart mode or this other performance campaign which would seem like it was better than the what you're talking about. Now we've come full circle and well.
- [22:56]
D
And the other thing is. Other thing to watch out for. You guys all.
- [22:58]
A
I'm actually becoming a good minty now. You know, I wasn't. I was trying to. To mentor him. Well, you full circle there. Well, yeah, exactly.
- [23:07]
D
What will happen though is because it has a smart mode and most people don't even know how to use Google Ads at all.
- [23:12]
C
At all.
- [23:12]
D
You'll have some outsourced guy on Fiverr that'll say I can do Google Ads and all he's Doing is just turning that on, turn the Smart Mode on. But then you'll notice we had an $10 million IT company. He's like, yeah, we're getting leads from Best Buy on how to, like, fix a computer for Best Buy. It's like, that has nothing to do. Well, that's because that's Smart Mode, which is stupid because AI doesn't have the ability to. To do what Michael does or what our analysts do. It requires a brain, a real brain. And maybe AI will get sophisticated enough in the next decade and Google Ads won't need analysts.
- [23:40]
A
I think it will.
- [23:42]
D
Yeah.
- [23:42]
A
And that's not to knock, you know, something like that, but I think it will.
- [23:46]
D
I think it will, but it's not.
- [23:47]
A
There yet because we're seeing the same with Facebook ads. And we run a lot of Facebook ads for people. But, you know, AI is already helping.
- [23:54]
D
There's just so many assumptions AI makes that are not accurate. We had a law firm, we put in all the right keywords. Google will make assumptions based on that keyword of what they think, the type of cases, and they'll be wrong on all of them. You need an analyst sitting there putting all the negative keywords and teaching the AI where to go.
- [24:09]
A
Because it's data in, data out. In essence, it's like, it's the quality of your data. It's the quality of what it's actually processing and refining that and refining the box.
- [24:18]
D
So I don't think everybody can do a Google Ads simply because not everybody has the revenue or the capital to invest. But. But I would say if you don't have the money, don't do the cheap way, because it's just going to blow whatever money you did invest, even if it's a small amount, it's a complete waste.
- [24:30]
A
Give people an idea we're seeing. So we run Google Ads for Acre Brothers Realty, which is my brother's residential real estate team. We do a lot of work with. He's on the show a lot of times. And we're seeing, I think in 2024, we'll end the year around like 23 deals closed in real estate from running pay per click ads.
- [24:47]
D
That's great.
- [24:48]
A
Which is awesome. We find we've spent about the same on pay per click as we have on Facebook, but Facebook has generated hundreds and hundreds of more leads. So what does that tell you? The quality of lead in Google is better, and it's taken less phone calls, calling the Google leads and getting the call ins from Google than it has the Facebook leads. So I don't say that Facebook is necessarily better than Google or Google's better than Facebook.
- [25:17]
D
They're both great.
- [25:18]
A
But we are running, we're testing pay per click and Google Ads right now for Steven's real estate team and is producing.
- [25:25]
D
And I guess the last thing I'm going to say about it is right now, because AI doesn't work the way it should. It does have to do with your analyst. So you may get a performance result, but you can have another company come in and audit that because Maybe you're getting 26, but you could be getting 36, but you don't know because your analyst is decent. But it really comes down to the person and the analyst behind the scene who's driving the campaigns, optimizing the campaign. So. So you can even get results. But it's always good to audit your accounts once in a while because companies will come in and audit and look at the campaigns and say, hey, you're good to go. Or they'll say, hey, you're missing this, this and this. So you're getting 26, but you might be able to get 36.
- [25:57]
C
Maybe.
- [25:57]
D
Maybe 26 is the max you can get. So even when you are performing well with an ad agency, it doesn't hurt to get an audit. And obviously I'm biased because I like to do audits, because I like to steal accounts.
- [26:08]
A
But go to up level Mark. I'm just kidding. All right, so I want to go over to you, to you, Nate, and talk about SWAT a little bit and then we'll get on some business topics. But you started this SWAT conference, which is an incredible conference in the insurance space. I actually think it could go past insurance. Know you're helping insurance agents, anything in sales, sales, marketing, all that stuff. What inspired you? I don't think I've ever asked you this before. Why start? Because you're a successful agent, agency owner yourself. You've done a ton of stuff. What inspired you to start swat? Why would you do that and invest in people's education like that?
- [26:42]
C
Well, you know, I, I got, I got brought up. I remember when I first met my mentor. He drew out a. A pyramid or a triangle. And he started drawing out, you know, the top 3% and then it 3% and 10% and 60% and 27%. And he said, you know, 3% are the wealthy and they're the millionaires and the billionaires and they're, you know, they're the, they're the motivators. And then you have the 10 of society. Which is, you know, they're doing really, really well. Maybe they're not at that level yet, but they're self motivated. Right. And then you have the 60% which are motivatables. And of course we had the bottom 27%. Those numbers have actually drastically changed now that three went to one and the, the now it's more like one nine, you know, 50, 40. Unfortunately, social media is really drawn that bottom. You know, the victims and woe is me. And you know, life's awful. You know, it's like I was making a joke in the suite there. I said, you know, if I could walk on water, so and so would say it's only because I can't swim. Yeah, right. You know, it's just like they always have something to say. They're negative, they're, they're like. And those people, you want to kind of cut out your life, but if you can stick with the whole 3, 10, 20, you know, 60, 27. I came from that 60. I was very motivatable, right. When things were great, I was great. When things were good, my attitude was great. When things were bad, oh, you could tell you from mile away, you just tell someone's having a bad day. You ever see a bad day look on someone's face like, oh, they're having a bad day, they wear their emotions on their shirt sleeve. So I was very motivatable, right. And most people are. And so when I first got involved in sales, if it wasn't for those conferences and those workshops and me learning how to become that self motivated individual. There's steps on how to become self motivated. You can't go to the store and go, if you ask someone that's in sales or anybody else, what would you, what's one thing you could change by yourself? I want more self confidence. I want more confidence, confidence, more self confidence. Why can't go back a six pack of self confidence down at the grocery store? I wish I could, but Ed my let said, how do you get self confidence? Keeping promises to one's self.
- [28:27]
D
Yeah.
- [28:28]
C
Oh, okay. Well, now I know like how many grew up. Money doesn't grow on trees. Yeah. They never told you where it did grow, did they? Yeah, I grew up here in Jersey, down the road we had leaves, you know, I'd be raking the leaves and outside I'd be raking leaves for hours. Never saw Hyundai's and Benjamin Franklin's down there. Right. There's no money on trees. I get it. I mean my mentor, he said that, you heard my, didn't grow in trees. I said, sure did. He goes, I bet they ever told you it did grow? Did they said no. And he goes, it grows in other people's pockets.
- [28:52]
A
Yeah, it's so good.
- [28:53]
C
And if I take it out of your pocket without giving you something, return it, call it stealing. If I give you a product or service in exchange for money, they call it capitalism. I was in my 20s the first time I figured out where money grew. So, like all these things that are out there, they're written in books or everything else. It's not like I have some magic dust that you're going to come get. It's all there. But how do you, how do you learn those necessary strategic wealth accumulation tactics? How do you become better at communicating to people? How do you create a realization in the mind of the buyer, they need what you have. I don't care if you're selling a house, you're selling a pen, you're selling insurance, you're selling. I was in three different industries and use those, those, those skill sets to make millions of dollars in three completely different industries. Right? And I'm not saying that to brag. It wasn't because I was smart. I just learned how do I create a realization in the mind of your buyer that they need what you have? Well, if I can do that by the series of questions I ask and how to take, how do I identify you within two to three seconds to realize who am I communicating with? Right? So you don't confuse the message with the messenger. I talk about all the time. You see, you line up these sales guys, right, and they have their pitch and they were taught well, yeah. So one week, it's like, I pitched 10, I got three. Yeah. Next week, pitch 10 got zero. Next week, pitch 10 got nine. What is it? Well, because you're doing the same exact pitch, you're walking into the presentation with your gun loaded. I was taught you walking with an empty gun, you sit across the table and they hand you the ammunition. Right? They hand me the ammunition. And so if I walk into the room and I have the most, I'm selling a Lamborghini for the price of a Honda. And I walk in, there's a hundred people there, and 25 speak English and 25 speak Spanish, 25 speak French and 25 speak Italian, and I only speak English, what's the maximum amount of sales I can make out of Those hundred people? 25 without using AI and all these techno you make it do. No. Without writing anything down. Yeah, great answer, right? 25%, that's all I can get. And if I'm the closer of all closers and know every scale and overcoming every objection or skills, I lost 70% of my audience. Well, what if I could just teach you within three to five seconds or 30 seconds or a minute to identify what if you could speak English? So what if Nick comes in? He can speak English, French, Italian and English and he's only half as good as me in sales. He just doubled my amount of sales because he can communicate to the all hundreds.
- [31:01]
A
Yes.
- [31:02]
C
So we bring you in this environment. It's a three day workshop where you sit down and I'll tell you what inspired me real quick. And you do learn these. We bring in the top of the top people, people that are using these on a daily basis. They're making seven figures in the industry or more and they're not up there talking about, oh, I used to live on an air mattress, now I'm rich. That's great. I don't know if you've been to conferences. I'm like, what did you do?
- [31:20]
A
How did you do it? What are the steps?
- [31:21]
C
I see your Rolex, your Bugatti, I see all, what did you do? Like what Can I leave here on Monday morning and apply to my business to make money Today? I'm not going to be a millionaire tomorrow, I'm going to make it today. So every speaker, every trainer you call a speaker, every trainer is fixated on you good up there. And you train exactly what you do. If you're not willing to tell them exactly what you do, you're not there training. If you don't have the results, that's another thing. When the results stop mattering, man, you know, you just go on Tick tock or Facebook or Instagram, one has an opinion, it's like, what's your result? Yeah, why don't I listen to someone? Doesn't have a result, right? So I, I was trained that way and I took that and I brought into several different industries and I brought it into the insurance and that's how we were able to grow from a million to million to 4 million, 8 million and have a record pace and have a million dollar, you know, a year passive income. After my fifth year in the business, it wasn't because, you know, the product doesn't matter, the company doesn't matter. It's, it's how you, if you look at a circle, you have the comp, right? You have your products and services and there's you. Everyone wants to look at the comp. Level what comp. Level. I am. I had this contract. That contract doesn't matter. What products do I have? They're all the same. It's not different for boys and girls and tall and skinny. And people have voted for Kamala doesn't get a different product. And they voted for Trump. No one cares. It's like, here's the same static product that never changes the gym. The weights don't change. Right. Then you have the complex. The same for everybody. Everybody's equal. Whether you have a GED. No. No. No education. Or you have a PhD.
- [32:42]
D
Right.
- [32:42]
C
Or you play in the NBA. Right. It doesn't matter. So then the focus point is what does matter in that Mercedes symbol, Peace sign, comp plan, product. You. Oh, now it's time to look in the mirror.
- [32:55]
A
Yeah.
- [32:56]
C
So we focus on you. You can learn to comp and the products, everything else from the industry. No, you come in there and we are going to teach you how can I go out there and become the person I need to become, be. To be at the level that we want to be at? And I always did that internally. We had incredible success code. I met Coach bert at Cody Askins 8% nation. If you haven't been there, you definitely got to go there. And if you haven't met Coach Burt, you're missing out on life. This guy's incredible. I hired him as my coach. I. I was in a success.
- [33:23]
A
I didn't know he hired.
- [33:24]
D
You.
- [33:24]
C
Hired. Yeah. Successful people make decisions quickly and change them slowly. Why? Average people contemplate to consider, to evalu, discuss with their friends. And I'm sitting at 8% VIP lunch about five years ago, and Coach Bert talked, and I walked beine straight to him. I go, I need you in my life. And he said, great. And so I hired him as a coach. And what happened was I had them go speak at my event, and I was just doing it internally. I just. I really don't have a desire to go out there. And I. I've spoken from 10,000, 20,000 people. I've done all that and everything else, and it was fun and cool. Especially when you're young, you have to know your eye. People line up to take your picture, and then it's kind of like, oh, God, now you just want to get off and go, just chill. And so we get done. I said, so, what'd you guys think? And. And. And Cody's like, man, that's. That's awesome, man. It's like, man, it's just things that people really, really need to Learn stuff. And then coach was kind of like, what are you doing? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, why are you being selfish? Well, I'm not being selfish. What are you talking about? He's like, why are you not opening up the entire industry? I'm just kind of like never thought about it. I really never thought about it. You know, I'm like, I didn't want to be Tony Robbins and all this kind of stuff. I didn't have this really need to do it. And so Cody was kind enough to actually a piggyback a one day event. And we had like 85 people show up. I'm like, who wants to do it for a week? And they all, you know, raised their hand. I'm like, okay, great.
- [34:37]
A
Wow.
- [34:37]
C
Passed out papers. We sold 111 tickets. I go, how is that possible? They said, well, people are buying tickets for the people to come. So we haven't really. We don't really app people. It's like, I didn't know about it. We don't really advertise. It's been more word of mouth. I like to keep the environment small because otherwise it does. It's a workshop. Like we're in there, hour and a half. Boom, break. We have nine breaks throughout the events. You get the top ticket level. I mean, you also like to keep.
- [34:55]
A
It cold because it's normally 62 degrees right now.
- [34:58]
C
I'm sweating right now. Like, look at my hand. Right. You only want. It's so hot in here.
- [35:01]
A
But anyway, that is such a truth in business of like how great businesses are formed and grow. They grow out of a need and then they organically. Most of them come like, you weren't trying to create this massive conference. You had piggybacked off of Cody, which has a great event, 85 people. You sell 111 tickets. It shows the demand people. It's grown every year that we've.
- [35:22]
C
Yeah.
- [35:23]
A
And it is truly a phenomenal. You just got a glimpse into the event, you know, this multi day event. It is phenomenal where you speak into people's lives. I've witnessed that. I've been there many, many years where you are not only teaching them sales skills, but you're also most importantly teaching them mindset skills which ultimately affect how you act. And that you cannot change how you act until you first change how you're thinking and you go over all that, which is pretty amazing.
- [35:49]
C
Yeah. And then finalize that it's. It's like most people spend more time and energy picking out a birthday presentation for a friend than they ever do design their life. They'll spend more time picking out their trip to Florida or, or a Christmas break. And if you think about it, and if you're watching this or whatever, you don't the answer. But did you. How many people do you know actually sat down to design up their life? Here's where I'm going to be in 20 years. Spiritually, mentally, physically, socially, financially. Here's where we're going to be. Here's where I'm going to live, who's. Who I'm going to be. Here's my impact and a half. Here's a person I'm going to become. I would say less than 1/10 of 1% of the people I knew did that. That. And we take them down a road. It's called the blueprint of your life. And they go from 20 years to 10 years to five years to six months, three. And then you have daily actionable steps. What do I need to do today, each and every day to get where I need to be in a month? What do I got to do each and every month to get to where I want to be in a year? And you actually map it out. And when it's. It's crazy because I get sitting here getting chills on my arms. I was 20 years old, Luke, and literally designed my life where I was going to be. And every single thing that is in that book is. Has a check mark next to it. Check, check, check. The house. When I show that picture right, you can see the house is almost identical home I drew when I was 20 years old. So I'm going to have a circle driveway with, you know, looks like the, the. What do you call it? Checkerboard, Print everything. And so anyway, without going on and on, it's like you go to. It's an immersive environment. It's nothing like you've ever been to before. And it goes quick and it goes fast, but you're learning the whole time. You're interacting the whole time and you're in, in that workshop environment and you come out a completely different person.
- [37:17]
A
Yeah, it's really do. It's pretty amazing.
- [37:19]
C
You.
- [37:19]
A
You triggered for me as I think about what you're saying. Like you mentioned Ed Mylett and Ed Mylett teaches like you can rarely accomplish what you haven't visited in your mind multiple times. And you talk about the house that you live in or the company that you have the life that you.
- [37:32]
C
The wife. I'm married to the children that I have.
- [37:34]
A
It's scary.
- [37:35]
C
It's scary.
- [37:36]
A
Which goes to what? It goes to the basic principle on what you focus on grows.
- [37:40]
B
Yeah.
- [37:41]
C
What was it? Was it Tony who. You guys all seen it. Like, how many red things did you see today? Yeah, it's the same thing. It sounds really dumb. And I was talking to a kid the other day about this, but if I went back and said, okay, for every red thing you see today, I'm gonna give you a thousand bucks. What are you gonna do? You're gonna walk in here, you're gonna.
- [37:54]
A
Have a lot of red.
- [37:55]
C
100 red things. But if you left right now and I said, give me, I'll give you a thousand dollars. Very. Thank you. Name that was read in that podcast room. All of us, including me, would have been like, I don't. Maybe the lights. That's the only thing I would even remember seeing. But now it's on my point. Oh, there's red on the headphones. There's red there. There's red there. And so it is about that focus. It is getting. What do you think?
- [38:12]
A
The famous story of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, which I believe is true, because unless it was AI, I saw a clip where they were talking to Warren Buffett about this, but they were at Bill Gates father's house, and Bill Gates father asked them, what has been the key to your success? If you were going to say it in one word? And they both wrote down on a piece of paper and handed it. And it was both the word focus. And I don't know if that's a truth. I hope it's true. I think it is true because it's a cool story.
- [38:38]
D
Story.
- [38:38]
A
But I will tell you this. It's been true in my life. Is that focus, focus, focus. That is the theme that helps people grow. So. Man, we barely got to hardly any of my questions. Gentlemen. This is. It was really good, though.
- [38:52]
C
This is so important. You imagine. Are you married, Alex?
- [38:55]
B
Yes.
- [38:55]
C
Yes. Okay. So you imagine, you know, what's your wife's name?
- [38:58]
B
Kathy.
- [38:58]
C
Kathy. Kathy gets up in the morning. Alex gets in the morning, gets. Starts up the car, gets out of the garage. Kathy goes, hey, where you going, honey? I don't know. What are you doing? I'm just driving. Driving where? I don't know. Comes home, gets done for the day. He goes, where'd you go? Just driving around. Next day, does it again. Next day, how many days before your wife would want to commit you to mental hospital going, alex, what are you doing? I'm just driving. Where are you going? I don't know. And so many people in their life, even in their business, they wake up and they start the car because everyone's doing, I got my leads, I got my phone. Where are you going? I don't know. Yeah, well, if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going to wind up up somewhere else.
- [39:32]
B
Yeah.
- [39:32]
C
So if I jump on this airplane, I'm trying to fly back to dfw. I can't imagine the guy gets on there and goes, it always tell me they swallowed the microphone. You know, welcome to Flight 3244 to AA. You know, we don't know. We're sure we're going, but I hope when you get there, you're happy with where you're at. Would anyone not hit the call button and say, get me off the plane. But how many people are out there, including myself, that every single day they're jumping on an airplane, they have no idea where it's going to land and they hope they're happy when they get there?
- [39:58]
A
Dude, so good, man. So good. All right, so last question for us as we wrap up. You can't use focus because we've already used it. You know, one skill you think every entrepreneur should master. We'll start with you, Alex.
- [40:10]
B
I'm gonna cheat. I'm gonna say AI. Hey, I think that's a skill because I think it, like you were saying, I think it is going to become something that, that is an immersive thing. It will be in everything. And so you will either be playing catch up or you will be able to stay with the flow as things change.
- [40:31]
A
But there is just to make it practical for people. Is it like learning great question prompt or how would I learn?
- [40:37]
B
Yeah. So there's two things to learn in AI. Number one, learn how to speak to the language models like ChatGPT. That's huge because if you don't know how to speak to it, then it will not give you the results that you want. The second thing to learn about AI is what is it capable of replacing me in on a day to day basis? Because then you can focus more on revenue generating activities. Right. And so if I'm, if I'm replying to my emails like we were talking about this, you know, in the conference room, if I'm responding to my emails when the AI can read it and go, this person wants an appointment with Alex. So I'm going to respond and say, hey, I am Alex's AI powered assistant. You want an appointment with him? Here's his calendar link. I don't have to respond to that email. The AI can do it. There's a lot of other examples of that, but that's the two things. Learn how to talk to it. Learn how to use it to replace you.
- [41:31]
A
That's great, Nick.
- [41:32]
C
That's huge. Learn how to talk to it, because I have no clue how to talk to it.
- [41:35]
D
Resourcefulness.
- [41:36]
A
Resourcefulness.
- [41:36]
D
I think the, at least a startup entrepreneur, insurance agent, or any business owner thinks that you need capital, which you do need money. But capital comes just human capital. And there's relationship capital. I've gotten a helicopter for free through a relationship to do a music video for marketing. I've gotten a lot of opportunities. I acquired my business with no money. The way I did that is because I already had value in the market as a coach. The client that was exiting, I offered him X amount of coaching for his client list when he was exiting. And so I didn't have the financial capital to buy and I didn't want to put money into it, but I put in my. Some of my time and my energy and the fact that I was resourceful and found something that this guy needed and was able to transact business. So I think the limiting belief is, well, I don't have a lot of. I don't have a lot of money. Money is not. It's resourcefulness. If you, if you become resourceful, you can have anything you want. Some of the most powerful people in the world are not because they have money. They're people who are influential and resourceful people who have a lot of money. I don't remember if you remember Bloomberg trying to run for president. He had no influence. He had money, but he, his personality was garbage and all and he couldn't talk. And at the end of the day.
- [42:48]
C
He just has an opinion. Everybody. I'm just saying there's no reflection on. Yeah.
- [42:56]
D
The point I'm trying to make is that that money in and of itself does not give you influence to human capital. And so, you know, you can be wealthy with money or you can be wealthy with relationships. You can be wealthy with a network. You can be wealthy with people who believe in you and want to give you things because they want to support your vision. You don't necessarily need money to, to be successful. Money will follow success. But.
- [43:16]
A
But you don't need, though. People do not become resourceful until they face crisis.
- [43:22]
D
Yeah.
- [43:23]
A
And it's unfortunate because they, you know, I believe God uses pain in crisis to make you change 100%.
- [43:31]
C
And so forging, building character.
- [43:33]
A
People see pain oftentimes as a punishment where they don't see it as actually love. It's like, no, no, no, I can't get you back unless I get some awakening to happen in your Life. It's not 100% of the time.
- [43:46]
C
Right.
- [43:46]
A
But people only become resourceful until they are faced with this.
- [43:50]
D
But if you can learn to become resourceful when you're doing well.
- [43:53]
A
Yes.
- [43:54]
D
And you can elevate even to the next level, like this film I'm doing, I'm not putting my own money into it. Right. The NFL executive we're working with and stuff, we have corporate sponsors. We have different people donating to it. Some of the richest people go there and start foundations or they start nonprofits, and then they have their rich friends donate to it. They don't put in their money into it. The reason is, is because they're rich in resources of friendships who want to support division. So all I'm saying is that resourcefulness is the number one key, because if you don't have money, you can be resourceful and create money, but if you don't have resourcefulness, I don't know how you're going to be able to elevate.
- [44:27]
A
All right, man, so we'll end with you, Nate. What is one skill you think every entrepreneur should master?
- [44:33]
C
Obviously, there's a lot, but I was going back and forth. I'd say details, okay? Pay attention to details. Details delay, so don't get caught up on the details. But you got to be able to learn to pay attention to details. Pay so many, especially in today's society, it goes way, way farther than it even did before. A simple phone call, picking up the phone, a simple note, not one that you hired a company to look like your own handwriting. And you magazine. There you go. I mean, I'm not. I wasn't there plugging you. No, that's why you guys are so successful. You know, I was talking to people. They're asking about Steve and the company, and I kind of share with you your revenue. And else they're like, really? I'm like, yeah, like, we print ads. I'm like, yeah, but. Because what they're doing is they're paying attention to the details, Right? That person. You're making that person feel special and make them feel. And especially with all the Internet now and AI and. And social media and everything else, a lot of people have lost that. That contact. Right. And even when you're in selling and you're listening to people, so many people skip around details. If I sit down and have a conversation with you, you're going to tell me everything I need to know about the problems you have. And if I have a solution for him, you're gonna give me your money, period. And I see so many salespeople do it and I got real. I'm still bad at it, I'm still horrible at it. But like my being around my mentor, he is. So when you're making a million dollars a week, you gotta be detailed. That was after his, his, you know, $120 million mega yacht, his two airplanes, his 158 exotic 10 homes. He was netting after he paid his chef and his captains and his butlers and all. He was netting $52 million a year. Crazy. And he's the most detailed individual I have ever met in my entire life. And you're in a conversation with, he'll, he will make you hang on every single word you say. And it's like so many people just skip that.
- [46:18]
A
So I, I, that's such good advice. You trigger for me. My mother in law, my wife's mother worked for Kluge as one of her or one of his project managers. And Kluge at one point in time, years and years ago, was the richest person in the world. And he ultimately is the one who started essentially what Rupert Murdoch and Fox and all them own now. He owned it before them. But he said this advice to Barbara, Megan's mom, he said count the pennies, the dollars will count themselves. Because Kluge would pay attention to the literal like lowest thing on the spend versus you know, he would ignore the $10,000 charge, the $100,000 charge, but it was like 10 bucks. What is this, what is this $10 charge? Count the pennies, the dollars will come themselves. In essence meaning like it's hard for someone to get away with ten thousand dollar charge. It's very easy for someone to get away with the $10. It gets down to the details. It's, he was concerned about the minute details. It also made me think of Home Depot. CP or CEO said the best low level leader focuses on the clock. If they're managing a clock, they focuses focus on the hands, the big hands, how they're moving, are they telling the right time. The best leaders focus on the fine tuned little gears with inside the clock that are making the big hand. And it's the opposite of like what a lot of business books will teach you. Oh don't micromanage. Don't get too much of it. It's like, no. Any real business operator will go, go. No. That's a load of bs, man. You got to be down in the actual details to the little clock, like that little gear that's moving everything and make sure it's fine tuned and oiled correctly because otherwise you end up getting screwed. And then you're sitting here going, what happened? And you have no idea because you're just focusing on the big hand and you have no idea how your clock actually works.
- [48:03]
C
It's like in the, in the insurance industry, it's like I look back and a question you had on there, we're in Monday mindset was what would you leave behind? It's like I started looking back, reviewing. We were paying attention to details. How many dollars did you make? How many sits did you get? How many apps you get? How many apps stayed on the books? We held them accountable to those details. Our agency was going a thousand miles and then other people like, oh, just, you know, bring people in and just let them do they want. We started, you know, got a little bit away from the details like oh, you're micromanaging or this net and you can just see it and you follow, you steal in sales numbers and it's like, okay, get back what was working? Hey, what's your goal? What's your commitment? You're not going to hit your goal. Should be your stretch goal. What you're gonna try to do, your commitment's gonna do it no matter what. How many sits you're gonna do no matter what. If I can track that way, I, I, we have it down to where I can literally sit down and almost to the dollar. Luke depict if I have an agency and I want to do a hundred thousand dollars a month, that's 64 appointments. Because the average appointment generates 400 APV. Boom. Great manager. How many points I set for the week? 50. Okay, great. The average point generates 50. I'm going to get 50 times 400. I'm gonna get XYZ in sales that week. I'm not going to get 50,000 in sales. So now I know. Okay, great. Either I got to go out and do them or I got to find more agents to do it, right? Because if you have a farm and you're like going, I need a hundred thousand gallons of milk and you have a hundred 100 cows and I'll give you a thousand gallons of milk, right? And you need 200 000. We got two choices. Grab a switch from the barn and start beating the cows or get more cows. Right. I mean it's a simple thing. But if you don't know those details, your analogies. Well no, but if you don't have those. Well yeah, you don't know those details. What do you see to people out there? Come on, we need 200 000. You're like, no, the average, the cow. This one gives you a gallon a day, this gives you 10 gallons a day. This gives you 28 gallons a day. Go find you need a hundred thousand more gallons. We need more cows.
- [49:40]
A
Yeah. People don't want to get to that level of specifics, I believe because whether subconscious or conscious, it gives you an excuse for your non performance. It's like when you're not performing and you haven't focused in on the details. Now you have an excuse that makes you feel better about yourself, but you're still living in the bed you made.
- [50:00]
B
If you don't have the details, you don't have accountability. And so then if you're just running and saying I want to get an extra hundred thousand, it's just, it's on your vision board. But you don't have the details. There's nothing to hold you accountable except for your hopes and dreams. But if you're like I got to make X number of more dials, well that's something you got to hold yourself accountable to now.
- [50:20]
A
So good.
- [50:21]
C
And when you have those details, like you said, that's where the frustration kicks in, man. I got my vision board, I'm trying to do everything else. We went from a hundred thousand to 150. Now we're down to 75 and they don't know why. And here's the kicker. They start doing more to things that put them from 150 to 75 because they thought those were the things that work. Because they don't really know what got them to 75 to 150 except their vision. We're all fired up, let's go. And then you go back to details, go, oh, it's pretty simple. X, Y, Z equals abc. And if I do more of X, Y, Z, I'm going to get more of abc. And if I can just keep it down to granular to those details, then you can systematically grow.
- [50:53]
A
I think the saying is like, you can't measure what you don't track and you can't improve.
- [50:56]
C
And I fall into this many times. So like I'm preaching to myself more than anybody else. So.
- [51:01]
A
Well, you're listening to I mean three super successful business leaders and driving their own companies. So hopefully take some of this advice. I want you guys to just plug where they can follow you where they can find you. Starting with you, Nate.
- [51:14]
C
I don't know. You have to come back. I really don't know. I don't guess you don't know your Instagram. No, I have no idea what it is.
- [51:20]
A
This guy doesn't know the details of his business. Come on, beat him up in the comments. Say Nate, come on.
- [51:24]
C
SWAT Financial Nate offer.
- [51:26]
A
We'll put all the links in the show notes too. But yeah, you guys can find them on LinkedIn if you just Google Nate Hoffer. You can also find swat's website right there. Think about attending swat, especially if you're in the financial space. Attend swatted as well. Worth it. Alex, what about you?
- [51:39]
B
Yeah, Alex Branning. Or you can check out our software at Agent CRM.
- [51:43]
A
Awesome.
- [51:43]
D
And then Nick at I am Nick Bravo. Or you can go to LevelUp Global.
- [51:49]
A
Level up. Level up dot global. Awesome. So guys, this is Stay Paid. I know you guys missed Josh. Let us know in the comments how much you missed him. Give him a hard time. Go to Stay paid podcast on Instagram and say, josh, man, we didn't miss you at all. Dude, what's going on now? Ms. Josh. Hope he's doing well. We will be back with you next week. If you liked this episode, which I'm sure you did, how could you not like this episode? Make sure you go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you listen to your podcast, please leave us a five star review. It helps us in the ratings which helps us get more visible to new listeners, which is what we're trying to do. And then if you really love this episode, share it with a friend. Send this to somebody who needs it to help them in 2025. Level up up. The action item from this podcast that I want to give to each of you is what you focus on will grow. But most of you have not picked a focus. And I want to encourage you right now to take an hour at least this week, today and put down on paper what your focus is. You just heard us rant about. You cannot improve what you don't measure. You can't measure what you don't track. And so you have to have a focus in order to do those things. Remember the difference between a top producer and a mediocre producer in every single business. As top producers take action, take action on that today.